Having access to an aged care home might be a given in metropolitan Australia, but it is not in many rural and regional communities.
The Bombala community in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains is currently fighting for its only aged care home to remain open.
Aged care provider Southern Cross Care NSW and ACT recently announced it would close its facilities in both Bombala and Swansea, south of Newcastle, due to staff shortages.
The decision has left the Bombala community reeling, including Catriona Garnock's family.
"My mother-in-law, Shirley, she's 94 and she's been a resident at Currawarna for three years now," Ms Garnock said.
"We're really holding onto hope that it won't close and that Shirl can stay there."
Currawarna has operated for 43 years and is seen as an institution in Bombala.
Now, 20 residents, many of whom have helped contribute to the facility, are being forced to leave.
Of the town's 1,500 residents, 31 per cent are aged 60 or older and the closest aged care homes are located more than an hour away.
"It's 100 kilometres to the nearest aged care facility, so rural communities are really bearing the brunt of the aged care crisis at the moment," Eden-Monaro MP Kristy McBain said.
Just another service under threat
Bombala is no stranger to having its key services under threat.
Last year, the town's only GP clinic was set to shut down before a locum doctor came to the rescue.
However, Southern Cross Care said the COVID-19 crisis and crippling staff shortages cannot be fixed quickly in aged care, forcing it to close the home.
"Time, unfortunately, isn't on our side. These staffing shortages and the crisis that is upon us isn't going to improve in the short term," chief executive Helen Emmerson said.
While some residents are still planning to fight the decision, Cosmo Cafe owner Arthur Dracopoulos has resigned to the fact that he will have to relocate his 93-year-old mother.
His mother has lived in Bombala for more than 50 years and even contributed to the building of Currawarna.
"But it's going to take a while for [them] to find another provider."
A nation-wide issue
The events unfolding in Bombala are not unique.
Ms Emmerson said a number of facilities had closed in recent months across Australia, with staff shortages being blamed for most.
"I'm aware that there are nine rural homes that have closed since December," she said.
The organisation closed another facility down in Harden last year, which was eventually able to reopen under another provider.
Meanwhile, another aged care home closed in Eden late last year, forcing 24 residents to relocate.
Ms McBain said the federal government needed to do more to address the problem in regional, rural, and remote areas.
"We need to be throwing everything we can to make sure that people can remain in the place that they grew up in," she said.
"It's incumbent upon governments to come together and be solutions-focused right now."
